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As I write this, Canada seems to be on the verge of a political change of tack. As politics, like religion, is a subject best left undiscussed in social gatherings and SNAPd articles, I will avoid like the plague commenting on any of the actual political issues. In any case, I dont feel as though I really had a horse in the race as I find myself equally disappointed with all political parties – (I very much doubt that Im the only one who feels that way.) There was however, a winner – the Liberals, and a loser – the Conservatives. One side will feel jubilant, and the other will feel that for one reason or another, they were not able to make their message resonate with voters. Resonating, is really another word for marketing.

The centerpiece of the Conservative Party of Canadas advertising campaign, based on my admittedly unscientific and poorly researched data (my observation) was an annoyingly, ever-present television commercial series that focused almost solely on Justin Trudeaus hair.

As someone who generally absorbs commercials as ambient background noise, the millions of dollars spent on the spots did leave an impression on me, but not likely the intended one. My takeaways from the ads were that Justin might be ready soon (just not yet) and that he had nice hair! If there was more, I must have missed it.

Winning an election, when dissected, is the act of convincing the electorate that your vision is the best. It is in effect, a sales job. There is a philosophy in sales eschewed by some, that it is best to let the client know what you can do, not what your competitor cannot. In other words, stick to the positive, and not on the negative. While negative campaign ads seem to have worked for others in the past, perhaps the pendulum has swung the other way. There used to be a saying that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Unfortunately for the Conservatives, they were sticking to the vinegar.

As for the the results of the actual election, personally Im a little indifferent. Some are overjoyed, some despondent, but I have come to believe that nothing is either as good nor as bad as it first seems. If nothing else good comes of it, at the very least we will no longer be subjected to the nice hair though commercials. If something else results, hopefully it will be the realization that if you say something negative enough, often enough, eventually people will stop listening to you.

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